Bournemouth 1-3 Chelsea

[nyikolajevics 2,440]

3 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

Was a daft decision to leave him out of the CL., not that it matters anymore.

Meh.. I don’t feel we would have had chance to past Real Madrid even with him. They are better as a team, we had serious goalscoring problem, Badiashile wasn’t going to make this difference. And even if we kick them out, now we had to face City, who are miles ahead us.. 

 

Also completely made sense to name the club record signing, the 70 million winger and the expensive world star attacker in the CL-squad. 

[milka 3,308]

Enzo - no  rest since his debut  3th February . Already crucial part of the team .

I'm confident Pochettino can turn some talents player like Madueke , Badiashile , Mudryk into some high level players .Madueke under Potter played one match then 5 was not even in the group  .Now he played consecutive matches and in both he was one of the best on the pitch for the team. 1v1 will be a nightmare for defenders with his speed as well as Mudryk if they develop.

 

[Magic Lamps 11,466]

As we have nothing to play for this season anymore we can as well celebrate the wins we do get even if they are lucky and against shitty opposition

actually enjoyed our goals very much. Beautiful cross and header, nice whipped free kick for Badia (who I have been a don of since day 1) and the Sterling move for Felix was just slick.

Defence is still shambles tho. We will probably not keep one clean sheet here for the rest of the season.

offense looked good tho. Nice football, even the tactics were spot on. Kante to attack the wings, Gallagher to make late runs. Subs all worked out fine as well. We were bound to break that run of defeats at some point so feels good to have that chip off the shoulder. 

[Hamilton 2,118]

8 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

 

Defence is still shambles tho. We will probably not keep one clean sheet here for the rest of the season.

 

Still joint 3rd best defence with Arsenal in the league. Not to bad in a disastrous season like this.. 

[Blue Armour 4,173]

2 minutes ago, Hamilton said:

Still joint 3rd best defence with Arsenal in the league. Not to bad in a disastrous season like this.. 

Feels a bit bizarre. Doesn't feel like we have the 3rd best defense in the league, but I'll take it.

[Hamilton 2,118]

2 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

Feels a bit bizarre. Doesn't feel like we have the 3rd best defense in the league, but I'll take it.

Yeah indeed, if we could only score this season, we would be fighting for third I guess

[Laylabelle 9,304]

15 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

Feels a bit bizarre. Doesn't feel like we have the 3rd best defense in the league, but I'll take it.

Nahh...if only we weren't 16th goals scored wise....our downfall..

[Jonny 2]

If Bournemouth had not fluffed their lines they would have won today. 

[Magic Lamps 11,466]

3 minutes ago, Jonny said:

If Bournemouth had not fluffed their lines they would have won today. 

Yeah but just as we should not expect ourselves to become clinical over night you should not count in the poor teams around us to be world beaters either. We actually have an ok-ish record vs the teams below us this season. They are either leaky or chokers in front of goal just as we are. 

[Superblue 6,331]

10 minutes ago, Jonny said:

If Bournemouth had not fluffed their lines they would have won today. 

There have been a fair few games this season we've had more than enough chances to win games and ended up losing to opposition with a fraction of our chances.

Works both ways.

[Jonny 2]

Ok, but the fact remains we give teams chances and the teams we are supposed to be peers with would've slotted those chances home?

[robsblubot 3,259]

33 minutes ago, Jonny said:

Ok, but the fact remains we give teams chances and the teams we are supposed to be peers with would've slotted those chances home?

Yup.

Looking at goals conceded to say our defense is good does not quite work in football. It's not AM football where a diff set of players play defense, literally. We defend deep at times, with too many players dropping back, which hurts attacking transitions. We regain the football too far from the opposition goal, which makes the build up a bit slower. That play between Sterling and Felix is what creates chances, and we don't do enough of that--couldn't care less who is playing #9 if we don't produce enough in attack.

Madueke showed some skills today, and at the same time suggested he has no place when we face stronger opposition with that decision making. Completely normal for a 21yo, but then again, he's at Chelsea now. Mudryc once again was one of the worst players on the pitch.

There are so many problems with the team right now that focusing on one area vs another is silly imo.

[Reddish-Blue 2,232]

53 minutes ago, Jonny said:

Ok, but the fact remains we give teams chances and the teams we are supposed to be peers with would've slotted those chances home?

The fact that we don't have a DM capable of taking the heat off the defense will always leave us open, especially on the counter. 

There's a reason why City and our "peers" are so far ahead of us in the table, they've got players in midfield capable of breaking up play (e.g. Casemiro, Rodri, Hojberg, Partey, Bruno G for Newcastle). 

 

 

[NFAS 4]

3 hours ago, Jonny said:

If Bournemouth had not fluffed their lines they would have won today. 

So? If we had taken our chances against Liverpool (both games) maybe potter would still have a job. If Felix hadn’t got sent off when he was running the show against Fulham….. who cares we won were not going anywhere!

[robsblubot 3,259]

3 hours ago, Reddish-Blue said:

The fact that we don't have a DM capable of taking the heat off the defense will always leave us open, especially on the counter. 

There's a reason why City and our "peers" are so far ahead of us in the table, they've got players in midfield capable of breaking up play (e.g. Casemiro, Rodri, Hojberg, Partey, Bruno G for Newcastle). 

 

 

Disagree. CM is is the single area were, in player quality, we are better than most other top teams. Of course, 2-3 CMs can do very little by themselves, so just need to build a team. If you need you CMs to break up play, you retake the football way too deep. Need all players helping out, which is what City does for 90min, Arsenal when they can, and RM whenever they decide to up the tempo.

[Reddish-Blue 2,232]

3 hours ago, robsblubot said:

Disagree. CM is is the single area were, in player quality, we are better than most other top teams. Of course, 2-3 CMs can do very little by themselves, so just need to build a team. If you need you CMs to break up play, you retake the football way too deep. Need all players helping out, which is what City does for 90min, Arsenal when they can, and RM whenever they decide to up the tempo.

A good CM will be able to break up play and get possession of the ball before the opposition has a chance to hurt you on the counter.

Think we've been a bit spoiled over the years having watched Essien, Makelele and Obi Mikelele...and even Ramires do the dirty work in midfield for us.    Kante is at that Essien level but with so many injuries, we really need to looking for a more long term solution in midfield.   

Will be interesting to see what the next coach has in mind...

[robsblubot 3,259]

1 hour ago, Reddish-Blue said:

A good CM will be able to break up play and get possession of the ball before the opposition has a chance to hurt you on the counter.

Think we've been a bit spoiled over the years having watched Essien, Makelele and Obi Mikelele...and even Ramires do the dirty work in midfield for us.    Kante is at that Essien level but with so many injuries, we really need to looking for a more long term solution in midfield.   

Will be interesting to see what the next coach has in mind...

sure, I just don't see anyone better than the ones we've got. Enzo would be an upgrade in any of the top clubs, even City. Arsenal is particularly weak in CM, which made that an odd read for me... don't think much of their CMs.

Edited May 7, 2023 by robsblubot

[Hamilton 2,118]

Onana for the dirty work next to Enzo for the vision..?